Bx cable cutter



July 9, 1940. J. G. WHITTAI-(ER BX CABLE CUTTER Filed April 9, 1938 INVENTOR, John/5. ll kz'tzmwf aML ATTORNEY.

Patented July 9, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BX CABLE CUTTER John G. Whittaker, Hawthorne, N. J. Application April 9, 1938, Serial No. 201,129

1 Claim. (01. 30-91 Herein is set forth a novel implement: for parting the helically formed armor of what is known as BX cable, to wit, insulated wire having a protective coating or armor formed as a strip of metal helically wound around the wire. The armor greatly resists efforts to part it, usually accomplished in a tedious fashion with the use of a hack-saw. Implements for severing the armor in a single stroke have been proposed, but

so far as I am aware none has been produced which, if it is consistently serviceable for the purpose intended, is not complicated in construction and hence expensive to manufacture, and whose use does not involve operations making it awkward and difficult to effect the parting.

According to this invention there are only the following principal components: An anvil member having a rigid handle, means coacting with a part of the anvil to clamp the work, and means to effect the cut including a lever fulcrumed on the anvil member, the out being accomplished by forcing the handles together. In the preferred form the cutter is an element supported by the anvil member independently of the lever and the movement of the lever relatively to the anvil member actuates the cutter;- in other words, the actuation of the cutter is indirect and hence the implement is more powerful than the other type herein set forth in which the cutter is in effect a part of the lever.

In the drawing:

Figs. 1 and 2 are plan views of the preferred form of the implement showing it in its closed andopen states, respectively;

Fig. 3 is a. side elevation thereof;

Figs. 4, 5 and. 6 are, respectively, a plan, side elevation and end view of the cutter;

Fig. 7 shows the cable with its armor in section and the cutter in plan, the armor appearing to have been cut by the cutter whose position for that purpose is shown by broken lines.

What amounts to a. manually held anvil member is provided, comprising a head and a shank or handle projecting therefrom rigidly. The head includes a body part in the form of an oblong block I having, upstanding from one broad face thereof, a fixed abutment or jaw 2 arranged at one end thereof and at one side of its longitudinal axis. With the abutment coacting to form a clamp another jaw formed by a smaller block 3 is pivoted to the body part, as on a screw 4v upstanding therefrom, and movable by a handscrew 5 tapped into an upstanding wall 6 or equivalent of the body part. For accommodation of cables varying in diameter the aperture of block 3 which receives the pivot may be a transverse slot 3a. The cable being positioned between s'aid abutment and block 3 it is firmly clamped in the state for cutting by turning the hand-screw. The adjoining faces of abutment 2 and block 3 are corrugated, preferably so that their corrugations will conform-in width and spacing with and so respectively receive the corrugations of the cable armor. Abutment 2 projects lengthwise of and from the body part and forms a threaded socket 201. into which the threaded end of the handleor shank 1 of the anvil member is screwed.

A cutter is formed by a flat elongated steel part 8 having a hole 8a perpendicular to its broad faces and reduced at its other end to provide a blade or knife portion 812 which lies in a plane perpendicular to the hole and between the planes of said faces and whose lateral cutting edge 80 forms preferably somewhat less than a right angle with the end margin 8d of the piece, developing therewith a sharp point 8x. The cutter is movable about a pivot formed by a pin 9 which upstands from the body member and penetrates hole 8a of the cutter. The cutter edge 80 adjoins the abutment 2 and the cutter may swing about its pivot, with its blade adjoining the block 3, to and from a position in which the cutter approximately parallels the adjoining face of 'sai abutment. On a pivot here formed by a screw l0 upstanding from the body part and at the opposite side of the cutter relatively to abutment 2 is fulscrew I 0 and a screw l3.

A piece of BX cable is shown in Fig.7. It com prises, with the insulated wiring a, having a wrapper of paper b, armor c which consists of a helically wound metal strip each convolution of which has at one margin an inturned flange c to engage and so interlock with an outturned flange or fillet (:2 at the relatively opposite margin of the next adjoining convolution. In order to part the armor it is necessary that a given convolution be of course severed from one edge to the other, which also means that the lapping portion of the adjoining convolution must also be incidentally severed. When the armor is so severed separation is possible by a slight unscrewing of one section from the other.

In operation the cable is first positioned on the anvil between the described clamping means, and the hand-screw B is turned to cause said means securely to clamp the cable; the latter, when positioned, should have the flanged margins c of its armor presented toward that side of the body part of the anvil member which the lever adjoins, as seen in Fig. 2; the lever should be swung appreciably away from the handle I; and the cutter should be swung away from abutment 2 sufficiently to permit the point 8m thereof to flank the margin 0 of the convolution to be cut. Thereupon the lever is moved toward the handle, wherefore its cam cams the cutter toward said abutment with the result that the blade of the cutter parts said convolution from margin to margin as shown at m, Fig. '7, incidentally cutting the flange or flanged margin 0' of the next adjoining convolution, whereupon the resulting sections may be separated by a slight unscrewing of one of them.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

In combination, an anvil member including a head having a surface across which the cable whose armor is to be severed is to extend and also including a handle projecting rigidly from the head, said head having an abutment upstanding from said surface and forming a jaw to bear against the side of the cable which adjoins the handle, a jaw on said surface adapted to bear against the other side of the cable and movable toward and coactive with the abutment to clamp the cable, a lever arranged to be at the first-named side of the cable and resting on said surface and fulcrumed in the head to move in substantially the same plane as the handle projects, said lever being spaced from the abutmerit, a cutter arranged on said surface between the lever and abutment to be at the first-named side of the cable and movable by the lever and against the cable, and means, movable independently of the lever and including a screw screwed into the head, to move the movable jaw toward the abutment and thereby clamp the cable.

JOHN G. WHITTAKER. 

